Oshiomhole and his Agbalowomeri gang

I cannot tell whether the word, Agbalowomeri, existed in the Yoruba lexicon before the late J.F. Odunjo gave meaning to it with his definitive book, Agbalomeri Baale Jontolo.

Written in 1958, the play is about the head of a village who, in spite of his position and wealth, forcefully sought patronage from his subjects, even the evidently poor ones.  Those who could not feed the greedy ruler’s appetite incurred his wrath, until his own day of reckoning came upon him.

Odunjo’s play probably inspired the character of James Ade Agbalowomeri, a corrupt top civil servant in D. Olu Olagoke’s The Incorruptible Judge, another play published in 1962.

As in the previous example, this top civil servant extorted money from young school leavers seeking employment with government. He thrived in this ungodly act until he demanded a sum of £5 from indigent Ajala who desperately needed a job as a Third Class Clerk in a government department.

The young man reported to the police, which planned a sting operation in which the covetous fellow was caught by the wrist and taken before an incorruptible judge.

The appellation, Agbaolowomeri, has therefore become an aphorism for anyone who, in spite of his high position in life, insists on snatching a portion from the crumbs that his cohort’s inept supervision of the resources brought on the people.

Our most recent example is the immediate past governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole who recently got the state House of Assembly to amend the “2007 Pension Rights of the Governor and Deputy Governor Law.”

While the existence of the 2007 law itself may not have drawn national attention, the recent amendment, which involved the construction of residences for the former governor and his deputy. raised more than a few eyebrows!

Here is the thing: Nigerians are going through what will pass as the most traumatic economic hardship for decades. Governors, including Oshiomhole are owing workers and retirees salaries and pensions months on end. And then, a governor who has fed fat on his state for eight years is getting a mansion constructed for him, anywhere he chooses in the country! By the time the state gets done with this misadventure, it would have lost a monstrous N300m that could have gone into some real productive venture.

Meanwhile, we heard all sorts of heart-breaking stories about the poor state of education and health infrastructure in the state while the former labour leader superintended.

As government flew kites about the sparkling state of education and how much it was doing to rebuild the dilapidation that it inherited, we heard accusations of renovations that stopped at mere whitewashing of exteriors without interior furniture requirements for the pupils. Such that pupils sit on the floor to receive lessons like we were in the primeval era. One or two of the schools bearing such eyesores were alleged to be at the backyard of the governor at the capital city, Benin!

Beyond the pedestrian milestones of road construction, building drainage and renovating hospital facilities without the complement of modern day equipment, it is difficult to identify any landmark visionary project that democracy has benefitted Edo State with in the last 16 years Yet, the Debt Management Office recently identified Edo as one of the most indebted states holding 4.91 per cent of the country’s subnational foreign debts with a total of $179.52m as of June 30.

It is this same state that plans to spend N300m on building mansions for the two men who allocated the resources of the state, according to their whims, over the past eight years. Sadly, again the state House of Assembly that has abandoned its role as the representative of the people allowed itself to be used for that.

Questions may be asked about whether the former Edo State governor is the only one receiving this benefit. The answer would of course be in the negative. However, Oshiomhole’s pedigree behoves on him a sense of consideration for the people. This is more so as he would most likely be wormed into another public office by the Federal Government with which he is cosy.

And such transition is one of the most profound evidences of the self-serving nature of public office in Nigeria. Unlike other countries in the world where people go into politics to serve, making sacrifices for the people, Nigerian leaders are motivated by the promotion and service of self at the expense of the people.

On attaining office, Nigerian leaders appropriate power and resources, strangulate structures put in place for checks and balances and become lords over everything and everyone. This is the reason why state governors turn their Houses of Assembly into adjuncts of Government Houses and render the judiciary totally subservient. It is the same reason they never want to leave politics, since it is the only industry where return on “investment” is guaranteed.

While it is within the rights of politicians to strive to remain in public office forever if they so choose, what is unacceptable is drawing remuneration from dual government positions at the same time

At the moment, not less than 21 former governors or deputy governors are senators. They benefit from the criminal financial opacity at the National Assembly while they still draw humongous sums in the name of pensions from their states.

Aside from those in the Senate, you have another set of ex-governors who serve at the pleasure of the President as ministers, four of those are Mr Babatunde Fashola, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr Kayode Fayemi and Dr Chris Ngige. All of them, senators and ministers lived on their respective states when they held executive positions. They have refused to let that go in spite of their new offices.

In addition to homes that pension laws of some states compel the successors to build for former governors, many states grant the payment of monthly pension equivalent to the salaries of the incumbent. The states also provide official and utility cars to be changed at four year intervals. There is the provision of the hiring of an officer not above salary grade level 12 as Special Assistant, a personal secretary not below grade level 10, two cooks, two armed policemen, drivers as well as free medical treatment for the governor and his immediate family.

Of course, the idea of pension plans for public office holders is integral to the democratic culture which is the United State has the Former President’s Act which as of  2015, allows a former President a pension of $203,700 per year. Such insurance should discourage the misappropriation of public finance but not in Nigeria where leaders abuse privileges to the detriment of the masses.

In spite of the huge pension burden that the state bears at the end of their tenures, these executives still go ahead to pilfer as much resources as possible while in office. When the stealing is not blatant, contracts are allocated to cronies who would always bring proceeds back to their mentors in government.

Another irregular thing about our situation is that people remain in public service drawing remuneration in addition to their pensions. All of these on the same federal allocation that is dwindling daily. The implication of these is that while our leaders continue to feed us with stories about the austere periods, they only expect already poor and cheated Nigerians to make more sacrifices for their own comfort.

Nigerians need to then stand up and put an end to this executive larceny which is, apparently one of the reasons why state governments fail to fulfil their obligations to the people.

It is one of the reasons why public primary and secondary education are in tatters, why public health care is a joke and why in spite of all propaganda, basic infrastructure in most of our states is a shame.

What the craze among outgoing state governors to measure up to each other’s insatiability suggests to me is that Nigerians do not have people looking after their interests. State Houses of Assembly connive with the executive in the confiscation of what belongs to all and the people are left in penury and hopelessness.  So, who will save the people? No one but the people must rise up in protest against their enslavement by politicians who do not mind stealing from already impoverished people. We must demand to know what these people earn and ask that anyone taking a new office must relinquish their pension especially as most of them would rather die than leave politics.

Twitter: @niranadedokun